Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the general term for heart and blood vessel diseases, including atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, aorto-iliac disease, and peripheral vascular disease. Subjects with CVD may develop a number of complications, including, but not limited to, myocardial infarction, stroke, angina pectoris, transient ischemic attacks, congestive heart failure, aortic aneurysm and death. CVD accounts for one in every two deaths in the United States and is the number one killer disease. Thus, prevention of cardiovascular disease is an area of major public health importance.
A low-fat diet and exercise are recommended to prevent CVD. In addition, a number of therapeutic agents may be prescribed by medical professionals to those individuals who are known to be at risk for developing or having CVD. These include lipid-lowering agents that reduce blood levels of cholesterol and trigylcerides, agents that normalize blood pressure, agents, such as aspirin or platelet ADP receptor antatoginist (e.g., clopidogrel and ticlopidine) that prevent activation of platelets and decrease vascular inflammation, and pleotrophic agents such as peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) agonists, with broad-ranging metabolic effects that reduce inflammation, promote insulin sensitization, improve vascular function, and correct lipid abnormalities. More aggressive therapy, such as administration of multiple medications or surgical intervention may be used in those individuals who are at high risk. Since CVD therapies may have adverse side effects, it is desirable to have methods for identifying those individuals who are at risk, particularly those individuals who are at high risk, of developing or having CVD and/or experiencing a complication of cardiovascular disease/major adverse cardiac event near term, e.g., within three years or six months.